


Stops and starts

by Morgane (smilla840)



Category: FBI: Most Wanted (TV 2020)
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode: s01e10, Spoilers up to then, What am I doing?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23655634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilla840/pseuds/Morgane
Summary: Set immediately after S01E10. Jess and Clinton talk.
Relationships: Jess LaCroix & Clinton Skye
Comments: 13
Kudos: 28





	Stops and starts

**Author's Note:**

> So… I haven’t written a thing in years but these two… I have so many questions. I need some backstory soon or I’m going to end up wanting to write it all and I really don’t have the time for it. Also, I’m a shipper at heart (and boy do I ship them), so while this is gen I guess you could read it as pre-slash if you squint hard and tilt your head sideways?

Jess is reading on the couch when Clinton shows up for lunch. It’s Sunday, and for once it looks like they might enjoy a full weekend without any new cases. It’s just as well, really. The bruises on his chest have yet to fade, and he isn’t looking forward to running around after fugitives in a bullet proof vest on Monday. 

He keeps his eyes on his book, letting the soft murmurs of voices in the kitchen wash over him as Clinton greets his mother. They’re too far away for Jess to catch any of their conversation, but it’s not long before the man himself appears in the doorway, leaning back against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest as he gives Jess a quick once-over to make sure he’s still in one piece. 

“Did you rat me out to your mother?” Jess asks, looking at him pointedly over the rim of his glasses, and Clinton smiles a little ruefully.

“She knew already. Said you’ve been dragging yourself around the house like an old man all weekend.”

Jess snorts, and then winces a little when that pulls at the bruises. 

“You okay, bro?”

“Yeah, yeah. Still a little tender, that’s all.”

Clinton lingers in the doorway, looking like he’s got something else on his mind. Jess is about to ask what’s the matter with _him_ when Tali comes bounding down the stairs with great enthusiasm and impeccable timing.

“Uncle Clinton!” 

Clinton barely has time to push away from the doorframe and open his arm before Tali comes barrelling into him for a hug, and Jess finds himself smiling

“Hey, kiddo,” Clinton says, pulling back to look at her. “How are you?”

“I’m okay.” Tali looks back at him solemnly, and Clinton holds her eyes a little while longer before nodding. Jess would dearly like to know what he saw that made him agree. He could use some of that reassurance himself.

“Good. Now what’s this I hear about a video?”

Tali’s face lights up and she starts talking a mile a minute, dragging Clinton back the way she came to show him her masterpiece. He follows good-naturedly, shooting a backward look at Jess who just grins and goes back to his book.

He does so enjoy Sundays.

Later, after lunch’s been put away, Jess finds himself standing on the porch, watching as Nelson explains something to Tali and she nods along dutifully. 

The door opens behind him and he looks back to find Clinton carrying two mugs, passing the one with tea over as he comes to stand next to him. Jess nods his thanks and for a moment they just stand there, watching the scene in front of them. The silence is comfortable but Jess knows it won’t last. 

After twenty years, he knows when Clinton has something on his mind.

“She’ll be okay,” Clinton finally says, setting his empty mug on the railing. His arm brushes against Jess’s as he does it and he doesn’t move away when he straightens again, his presence a solid warmth at his side. It makes Jess relax almost instinctually and he can feel his shoulders come down a little, the grip he had on his mug loosening a little. 

Uh.

He hadn’t noticed he was that tense.

He nods. Tali _will_ be fine – they’ll make sure of that – but still: 

“She’s been having trouble sleeping,” he points out to play devil’s advocate, because it’s his daughter and he worries.

“Well, yeah. Haven’t you?”

Which, point.

He _has_ been having nightmares about Tali, and ICE, and not finding her in time. He wonders if Clinton’s had them too. Abruptly he wonders if he’s thanked him for being there every step of the way during the whole ordeal – not that Clinton would accept his gratitude but still, Jess had appreciated it. Truth be told, Clinton had probably been the only thing stopping him from losing his god damn mind and doing something he would regret later.

“Yeah… Yeah, you’re right.” He glances back at Clinton and adds, more quietly, “Thanks.” 

It’s perfectly inadequate but Clinton gives him a half-smile anyway, nudging him carefully with his shoulder.

“Don’t mention it.”

Another moment of silence, and then:

“So what about you?” Clinton asks. “How are you?”

Jess startles a little at the question, looking away from Tali to meet Clinton’s eyes. He isn’t giving much away, his face calm and open. It used to frustrate Jess to no end back when they first met, this ability of Clinton’s to become so perfectly inscrutable. Jess’s gotten a lot better at reading him over the years and yet right now he can’t tell what Clinton is thinking at all, which means he’s got to be actively trying to keep it to himself.

Still…

“You know me, give me a few more days and I’ll be as good as new,” he tries with a wry smile, his hand coming up to rub his chest reflexively. 

But it’s not what Clinton’s asking and they both know it.

Clinton looks back at him steadily, looking unimpressed by his attempt at deflection, and Jess is the one who looks away first, sighing.

It’s not that he thinks Clinton doesn’t worry, he knows he does – probably too much, especially since Angelyne… well, especially since then. He just rarely pushes the topic out into the open. But then if Barnes had noticed something was off with him, enough so to ask him about it in the car, it stands to reason that Clinton had too. Really, Jess should have seen this coming. 

He could deflect again or turn the tables on him – it’s not like Clinton hasn’t had to deal with his fair share of tough cases lately – but Clinton deserves better than that. They both do.

“I’ll be fine,” Jess finally says and means it. “It’s just… some weeks are harder than others.” Especially when he gets shot and is forced to consider the possibility of his daughter losing both her parents. “Make me miss her more,” he adds before looking away, but not before he sees Clinton’s face loses its calm façade for a split second, doing something complicated that Jess can read only too well. 

They don’t talk about Angelyne, not really. Jess lost his wife, and Clinton lost his sister, and it’s not the same, except in all the ways it is. Uh. Maybe they _should_ talk about her more often.

But not today.

To his right, Clinton exhales slowly. “Okay,” he says. “Okay.”

Jess nods – reassurance for himself or Clinton or both, he doesn’t know – and a hundred yard away, Tali laughs. Jess finds himself smiling at the sound, and if his smile is a little sad or a little wistful, that’s okay. Grief is a strange companion, but a familiar one by now. This mood will pass.

“You know,” Clinton says carefully. “I could always use an extra pair of hands with those horses.”

It takes a couple of seconds for Jess to catch on, and when he does he glances back at Clinton but the other man isn’t looking at him, focused on the mountain range in the distance instead. 

Maybe he should be surprised by the offer but he isn’t, not really, because that’s just like Clinton. What does surprise him is the sudden yearning associated with the image. He wants that, or something like that – quite desperately in fact – and he isn’t quite sure what to do with the realization that he does want to have something to look forward to after all.

_Thank you_ doesn’t seem to cut it – again – so instead he wraps an arm around Clinton’s back to clasp his shoulder and lets himself hold on for just a little while. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Clinton smiling and feels his own smile widen in answer.

“Dad, come see!” Tali calls out, and Jess squeezes Clinton’s shoulder once before letting go.

“Come on,” he says. “Let’s go see what’s so interesting.” 

He goes, secure in the knowledge that Clinton will follow.


End file.
